We chat with debut author Mica De Leon about Love On The Second Read, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Mica! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a Filipino writer of romance, fantasy, and science fiction stories. By day, I am the managing editor of a publishing house in the Philippines, for which I have edited and produced more or less 200 books in Filipino and English written by some of the most amazing Filipino authors. By night, I write my own books. Before joining the publishing industry, I was a reporter covering entertainment, lifestyle, and health and science beats. My essays have won me major literary awards in the Philippines. I also write sappy, melodramatic Instagram poetry.
I love cats, dogs, mountain climbing, beach getaways, history, mythology, Taylor Swift, and Filipino songs. Most of all, I love books. My entire life is about books.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I knew I was going to be a writer since I was maybe seven or eight years old. I fell in love with it because I loved to read and my parents couldn’t afford to buy me books when I was a kid so I made up my own stories to entertain myself. I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember since then.
Funny story, before I took up journalism in university, I was dissuaded from pursuing a career in humanities because my test scores showed that I was a borderline mathematical genius and my humanities courses were just barely hanging on. You know how that went. I am terrible at math by the way. haha
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
The first book you ever remember reading: Kel Got Game by Steve Holland
The first full book I ever remember reading was a Kenan and Kel TV show tie-up book entitled, Kel Got Game by Steve Holland. I loved that show on Nickelodeon. I bought the book for 20 pesos at the secondhand bookstore with my Christmas money. I read that book till it was practically shredded to pieces. It was funny and clever and just plain fun to read. That was the book that got me hooked on reading.
I did a reread of it recently, and I still laugh at the jokes. Mostly, I laugh at myself at how easy it is for me to enjoy a book.
The one that made you want to become an author: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
In an interview, Neil Gaiman explained that adults and children see the book differently. Adults see it as a horror story, but children? They look at it like it was some grand adventure. And I was so fascinated by how nuanced and magical storytelling can be that people would approach the stories differently. I told myself I want to do something so magical as this.
I read at least Coraline once a year to check if I still have that child-like wonder as I am growing old. I like to think that I still do.
The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Red Rising by Pierce Brown and The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
It’s hard to choose! I love beautiful prose—prose that reads almost like poetry, which I try my best to emulate in my own writing. Can I give two titles?
I just finished Pierce Brown’s Light Bringer, the sixth book in the Red Rising series. I love that it reads like a Greek tragedy like the Odyssey but if the Odyssey was based in Star Wars. I’ve even got a line from the first book tattooed on my arm: “Live for more.”
But the one that I always go back to and would not shut up about to my friends is VE Schwab’s The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue. Oh my god, I tear up a little whenever I think about it. It’s such a beautiful, beautiful story.
Your debut novel, Love On The Second Read, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
book nerd’s romance trope fest
bookworm’s tropey romance fever dream
What can readers expect?
When I wrote Love On The Second Read, I told myself I’m going to write the tropiest, cheesiest, most fun-filled romance I could write and just fill it up with as many literary and romance references as I could think of. I like to think of it as an homage to all the stories that I loved reading.
So readers can expect so many book nerd references that I bet no one could spot each and every one that I put in there because even I can’t remember anymore how many I put in there. Haha
Where did the inspiration for Love On The Second Read come from?
When I first drafted Love On The Second Read, I had just finished drafting my epic fantasy book, The Winds Of War, which took me about three years and 30 plus drafts to write, and I wanted my next project to be simpler, more fun, less complicated, and more low stakes.
So I thought, hey, I’m a book editor by day in the Philippines. Maybe I could write a romance set in the Philippine publishing scene and just have fun with it. And I did. Where my epic fantasy took me three years to draft, Love On The Second Read took me only a month.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing Hannah’s character, Emma’s best friend. Lead characters have major stakes in the plot and storytelling so I can’t experiment too much with them, but with side characters, you could just do whatever you want and more likely than not, they won’t derail the storytelling. I wanted Hannah to be the foil to Emma. She’s outgoing and so sure of herself where Emma is shy and reserved.
This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I work in a book publishing house in the Philippines so I was already familiar with the process. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy going into it, but I was prepared for the many rejections that I might get. It definitely feels weird that I’m on the other side of the pitching trenches. I hadn’t expected to be published this year. In fact, I expected that I wouldn’t be published till I was well into my 50s or 60s.
So when Penguin SEA emailed me asking about my romance and fantasy books (after rejecting my non-fiction pitch haha), it felt like a gut punch and an abrupt bear hug rolled into one that I had to reread Nora’s email over and over again, thinking this must be a dream. It was such a happy surprise.
What’s next for you?
I have a fantasy trilogy coming next year so watch out for those. I am working on a romance about a side character in Love On The Second Read, this time set in the Philippines’ music gig culture. I have another romance set in Manila coming out as well soon and possibly a book of essays and a book of poetry. And I am drafting several other romances now, including a beach romance, a Christmas romance, and romantasy comedy.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
This is probably the most difficult question in this list. LOL. I would always recommend Pierce Brown’s Red Rising books and VE Schwab’s The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue. I can’t get enough of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books—Mistborn 1 and Tress Of The Emerald Sea are good starters into that SFF series. Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song Of Achilles are up there on my list as well as Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. I am working my way through every book by Emily Henry, Tessa Bailey, Ali Hazelwood, and Christina Lauren. I loved Lynn Painter’s The Love Wager and Mae Coyuito’s Chloe And The Kaishao Boys. Don’t get me started on Filipino authors! (Seriously, message me on IG @micadeleonwrites if you’re looking for recos of books published in the Philippines—from Wattpad books to graphic novels to chick lit.) I think I should stop now before I implode.
